SLAUGHTER IN CHOLULA VALLEY OF MEXICO. 31 



the city, who, together with the Cholulans, were to assault the 

 invaders in the narrow streets and avenues, as they quitted the 

 town ; and, thus, he hoped, by successful treachery, to rid the land 

 of such dangerous visiters either by slaughter in conflict, or to offer 

 them, when made captive, upon the altars of the sacred temple in 

 Cholula and on the teocallis of Mexico, as proper sacrifices to the 

 bloody gods of his country. 



Cortez, however, was not to be so easily outwitted and entrapped. 

 He, in turn, resorted to stratagem. Concentrating all his Spanish 

 army, and concerting a signal for co-operation with his Indian allies, 

 he suddenly fell upon the Cholulans at an unexpected moment. 

 Three thousand of the citizens perished in the frightful massacre 

 that ensued ; and Cortez pursued his uninterrupted way towards 

 the fated capital of the Aztecs, after this awful chastisement, 

 which was perhaps needful to relieve him from the danger of utter 

 annihilation in the heart of an enemy's country with so small a 

 band of countrymen in whom he could confide. 



From the plain of Cholula, — which is now known as the fruitful 

 vale of Puebla, — the conqueror ascended the last ridge of moun- 

 tains that separated him from the city of Mexico ; and, as he 

 turned the edge of the Cordillera, the beautiful valley was at once 

 revealed to him in all its indescribable loveliness. 1 It lay at his 

 feet, surrounded by the placid waters of Tezcoco. The sight that 

 burst upon the Spaniards from this lofty eminence, in the language 

 of Prescott, was that of the vale of Tenochtitlan, as it was called 

 by the natives, " which, with its picturesque assemblage of water, 

 woodland, and cultivated plains ; its shining cities and shadowy 

 hills, was spread out like some gay and gorgeous panorama before 

 them. In the highly rarefied atmosphere of these upper regions, 

 even remote objects have a brilliancy of coloring and a distinctness 

 of outline which seems to annihilate distance. Stretching far away 

 at their feet, were seen noble forests of oak, sycamore, and cedar; 

 and beyond, yellow fields of maize and the towering maguey, inter- 

 mingled with orchards and blooming gardens ; for flowers, in such 

 demand for their religious festivals, were even more abundant in this 

 populous valley, than in other parts of Anahuac. In the centre of 

 the great basin, were beheld the lakes, occupying then a much 

 larger portion of its surface than at present ; their borders thickly 



1 Between nine and ten thousand feet above the level of the sea, at this point 

 of the road. 



